Benefits of a multilingual environment

There are many benefits to being raised in a bilingual multilingual household. First of all, there are emotional benefits. If a child can speak the parents' language, he can better understand where the parents come from, the culture, the values, and can form a stronger attachment with the parents. There's also social benefits. Bilingual children tend to have more cultural sensitivity, more understanding and tolerance for other cultures and for diversity. There are then cognitive advantages. There is an increased creative thinking or flexibility in thinking. There is an increased and earlier understanding of how language works; this is called metalinguistic awareness. And so in a way, bilinguals are even ready earlier than monolinguals to learn to read and develop literacy. they kind of think about language, they think about how it works and about its elements, etc. And so there's a variety of benefits going from social to emotional to cognitive benefits associated to being raised in a bilingual or multilingual environment.

Simona Montanari, PhD

Professor

Simona Montanari is Assistant Professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on language development and second language acquisition in childhood. She received a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Southern California specializing in language development in monolingual and multilingual children. Dr. Montanari has published her research in prestigious peer-reviewed journals and she is regularly invited to present on early bilingualism and trilingualism locally and internationally. Dr. Montanari has also been involved in the creation and implementation of an Italian-English dual language program in the Glendale Unified School District, for which she continues to work as a consultant. Dr. Montanari has two trilingual and tri-literate daughters, six and seven years of age.

There are many benefits to being raised in a bilingual multilingual household. First of all, there are emotional benefits. If a child can speak the parents' language, he can better understand where the parents come from, the culture, the values, and can form a stronger attachment with the parents. There's also social benefits. Bilingual children tend to have more cultural sensitivity, more understanding and tolerance for other cultures and for diversity. There are then cognitive advantages. There is an increased creative thinking or flexibility in thinking. There is an increased and earlier understanding of how language works; this is called metalinguistic awareness. And so in a way, bilinguals are even ready earlier than monolinguals to learn to read and develop literacy. they kind of think about language, they think about how it works and about its elements, etc. And so there's a variety of benefits going from social to emotional to cognitive benefits associated to being raised in a bilingual or multilingual environment.